Morning Star - Universe Today Universe Today by Matt Williams [/caption] If you look to the morning sky – to the east that is, as the sun’s rising – you will notice a bright star in the firmament, one that should not be there. Theoretically, stars only come out at night and should be well on their way to bed by the time the sun rises, correct? Well, that’s because the Morning Star, as it’s known, isn’t a star at all, but the planet Venus. It is both the morning and evening star, the former when it appears in the east during sunrise and the latter when it appears in the west during sunset. Because of its unique nature and appearance in the sky, this “star” has figured prominently in the mythologies of many cultures. In ancient Sumerian mythology, it was named Inanna (Babylonian Ishtar), the name given to the goddess of love and personification of womanhood. The Ancient Egyptians believed Venus to be two separate bodies and knew the morning star as Tioumoutiri and the evening star as Ouaiti.

Likewise, believing Venus to be two bodies, the Ancient Greeks called the morning star Phosphoros (or Eosphoros) the “Bringer of Light” (or “Bringer of Dawn”) and the evening star they called Hesperos (“star of the evening”). By Hellenistic times, they had realized the two were the same planet, which they named after their goddess of love, Aphrodite. The Phoenicians, never ones to be left out where astronomy and mythology were concerned, named it Astarte, after their own goddess of fertility. In Iranian mythology, especially in Persian mythology, the planet usually corresponds to the goddess Anahita, and sometimes AredviSura, the goddesses of fertility and rivers respectively. Mirroring the ancient Greeks, they initially believed the planet to be two separate objects, but soon realized they were one. The Romans, who derived much of their religious pantheon from the Greek tradition and near Eastern tradition, maintained this trend by naming the planet Venus after their goddess of love. Later, the name Lucifer, the “bringer of light”, would emerge as a Latinized form of Phosphoros (from which we also get the words phosphorus and phosphorescence).

This would prove influential to Christians during the Middle Ages who used it to identify the devil. Medieval Christians thusly came to identify the Morningstar with evil, being somewhat more concerned with sin and vice than fertility and love! However, the identification of the Morningstar as a symbol of fertility and womanhood remains entrenched, best demonstrated by the fact that the astronomical symbol for Venus happens to be the same as the one used in biology for the female sex: a circle with a small cross beneath. The Morningstar also figures prominently in the mythology of countless other cultures, including the Mayans, Aborigines, and Maasai people of Kenya. To all of these cultures, the Morningstar still serves as an important spiritual, agricultural and astrological role. To the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese, she is known literally as the “metal star”, based on the Five Elements. We have written many articles about the Morning Star for Universe Today. Here’s an article about how to find Venus in the sky , and here’s an article about the brightest planet . If you’d like more information on the Morning Star, check out Hubblesite’s News Releases about Venus , and here’s a link to NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on Venus .

We’ve also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about Venus. Listen here, Episode 50: Venus . Sources: January guide to the bright planets | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky January guide to the bright planets By Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd in Astronomy Essentials | January 12, 2017 In January 2017, Venus blazes in the west after sunset. Mars is fainter, and nearby. The other 3 bright planets – Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury – light up the hours before sunrise. Next moon and planet pairing will be centered on or near January 19, 2017. The moon will sweep past Jupiter and the star Spica. Read more . Two of the five bright planets rise to great prominence in January 2017 sky. Venus rules over the evening sky while Jupiter rules the morning. Venus, the brightest planet, blazes in the west first thing at dusk, and reaches its greatest elongation as the “evening star” on January 12 . Jupiter, the second-brightest planet, lords over the eastern half of sky between midnight and sunrise.

Mars is near Venus in the evening sky, but it’s higher up and much fainter than Venus, setting in the west shortly after Venus does. Meanwhile, Saturn appears in the southeastern sky before dawn. Mercury a short hop beneath Saturn, just as darkness is giving way to morning twilight. Follow the links below to learn more about planets in January 2017. Skywatcher, by Predrag Agatonovic . Brilliant Venus is the “evening star.” Okay, it’s not a star. It’s a planet. But people will call it the evening star all the same. In these past weeks, many have noticed Venus and been amazed at its brilliance in the west after sunset. It’s the brightest planet and very, very bright, to reach its greatest evening elongation on January 12 . Be sure to catch the waxing crescent moon near Venus in early January, as displayed on the sky chart above. Click here for details . Watch for Venus to close the gap between itself and Mars. These two visible evening planets will be closer together on the sky’s dome by the month’s end and closer yet in early February 2017. From mid-northern latitudes (U.S.

and Europe), Venus sets about four hours after the sun throughout the month. At mid-southern latitudes (Australia and South Africa), Venus sets about about three hours after the sun in early January and about 2.5 hours after sun by the month’s end. The moon will sweep by Venus and Mars again before January, 2017 ends. Read more . You needed a telescope to see Neptune … but Venus, the brightest planet, was in conjunction with Neptune, the Hof our solar system’s major planets, on January 12, 2017. Photo by Borislava Georgieva in Bulgaria. Mars, east of Venus, until mid-evening. After appearing as a bright red light in our sky last May and June 2016, Mars now appears only modestly bright (though possibly still ruddy), above dazzling Venus. Venus is so bright that it pops out almost immediately after sunset, but you’ll have to wait until nightfall to see fainter Mars. Look for the moon close to Mars for a few evenings, on or near January 2 or 3 . From mid-northern latitudes (U.S.

and Europe), look for the red planet Mars to set in the west around 9 to 10 p.m. all month long. At mid-southern latitudes (Australia and South Africa), Mars sets in the west around 9 to 10 p.m. (10 to 11 p.m. summer time). Mars will linger in our sky for several more months. Keep in mind, however, that Earth is traveling away from Mars as we speak – moving far ahead of this planet in the endless race around the sun – so Mars is dimming in our evening sky. Mars is in its long, lingering, relatively inconspicuous phase now. It’ll be still visible in the west to the unaided eye – though not prominent – during its conjunction with Uranus on the evening of February 27, 2017. Mars won’t make its transition from the evening to morning sky until July 27, 2017.

Even so, Mars’ stature in the evening sky will continue to diminish to that of a rather faint “star,” and we expect few – if any – skywatchers to observe the conjunction of Mars and Mercury in the evening sky on June 28, 2017. The conjunction of Mars and Venus in the morning sky on October 5, 2017, may well present the first good opportunity to spot Mars in the morning sky when it returns from being behind the sun on July 27, 2017. Looking for a sky almanac? EarthSky recommends… View larger | Mikhail Chubarets in the Ukraine made this chart. It shows the view of Mars through a telescope in 2016. We never see Mars as a disk like this with the eye alone. But you can see why Mars was bright to the eye in 2016, and is now fading. Watch for the moon to meet up with Saturn on or near Janaury 24, 2017. Read more . Saturn returns to the morning sky. Saturn swung behind the sun on December 10, 2016, transitioning from the evening to morning sky.

In both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, Saturn returned to the morning sky in late December 2016. In early January, Saturn rises in the east about two hours before the sun, and by the month’s end, Saturn comes up several hours before sunrise. Be sure to let the waning crescent moon guide you to Saturn (and the nearby star Antares) for several days, centered on or near January 24 . Saturn, the farthest world that you can easily view with the eye alone, appears golden in color. It shines with a steady light. Binoculars don’t reveal Saturn’s gorgeous rings, by the way, although binoculars will enhance Saturn’s golden color. To see the rings, you need a small telescope. A telescope will also reveal one or more of Saturn’s many moons, most notably Titan . Saturn’s rings are inclined at nearly 27o from edge-on, exhibiting their northern face. In October 2017, the rings will open most widely, displaying a maximum inclination of 27o. As with so much in space (and on Earth), the appearance of Saturn’s rings from Earth is cyclical.

In the year 2025, the rings will appear edge-on as seen from Earth. After that, we’ll begin to see the south side of Saturn’s rings, to increase to a maximum inclination of 27o by May 2032. Tom Wildoner over-exposed Saturn itself to capture this view of Saturn’s moons on June 25, 2016. Visit Tom at LeisurelyScientist.com . Contrasting the size of Saturn and its rings with our planet Earth via Hubble Heritage Team . The moon swings by the planet Jupiter and the star Spica for several days, centered on or near January 19, 2017. Read more . Bright Jupiter lords over the morning sky. Jupiter’s increasing prominence as the “morning star” will be hard to overlook. To see Jupiter, seek out the brightest starlike object in the predawn sky or the morning twilight and that’ll be the king planet Jupiter! Jupiter rises in the east at late night and soars to its highest point in the sky at or near dawn. From mid-northern latitudes, like those in the U.S. and Europe, Jupiter rises around one hour after the midnight hour in early January.

By the month’s end, Jupiter rises roughly one hour before midnight. From mid-southern latitudes (Australia), look for Jupiter to rise around midnight in early January and about two hours before midnight by the end of the month. If you’re not a night owl, your best bet for catching Jupiter is to wake up before sunrise to see this brilliant beauty of a planet lighting up the predawn and dawn sky. Watch for the waning moon to join up with Jupiter for several days, centered on or near January 19 . See the above sky chart. By the way, Jupiter shines in front of the constellation Virgo, near Virgo’s brightest star, Spica . Jupiter serves a great reference for learning the constellations of the zodiac , because Jupiter stays in each constellation for roughly a year. So use Jupiter to become familiar with the star Spica and the constellation Virgo, starting now, and throughout 2017. If you have binoculars or a telescope, it’s fairly easy to see Jupiter’s four major moons, which look like pinpricks of light on or near the same plane.

They are often called the Galilean moons to honor Galileo, who discovered these great Jovian moons in 1610. In their order from Jupiter, these moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Jupiter and its four major moons via Jan Sandberg These moons circle Jupiter around the Jovian equator. In cycles of six years, we view Jupiter’s equator edge-on. So, in 2015, we got to view a number of mutual events involving Jupiter’s moons through a high-powered telescope. Click here or here or here for more details. Although Jupiter’s axial tilt is only 3o out of perpendicular relative to the ecliptic (Earth’s orbital plane), Jupiter’s axis will tilt enough toward the sun and Earth so that the farthest of these four moons, Callisto, will NOT pass in front of Jupiter or behind Jupiter for a period of about three years, starting in late 2016. During this approximate 3-year period, Callisto will remain “perpetually” visible, alternately swinging “above” and “below” Jupiter. Click here for a Jupiter’s moons almanac, courtesy of Sky & Telescope.

Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona caught Mercury on the night of December 11, 2016, amidst crepuscular rays from the setting sun. Look for the thin waning crescent moon and the planet Mercury low in the sky as the predawn darkness gives way to dawn. Who knows? Someone might even catch the moon below Mercury on January 26! The green line depicts the ecliptic – Earth’s orbital plane projected on the sky. Read more . Mercury in the morning sky. Mercury transitioned from the evening to morning sky on December 28, 2016. This month, beginning in the second week of January 2017, Mercury should climb far enough from the glare of sunrise to become visible in the morning sky from both the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. Saturn rises before Mercury does, so use Saturn as your guide “star” to locating Mercury closer to the horizon. Try viewing Mercury before sunrise for a few weeks, centered on Mercury’s greatest morning elongation on January 19 . Mercury is tricky. If you look too soon, Mercury will be lost in the twilight glare; if you look too late, it will have followed the sun beneath the horizon.

Watch for Mercury low in the sky, and near the sunrise point on the horizon, seeking for this hidden treasure around 90 to 60 minutes before sunrise. Remember, binoculars are always helpful for any Mercury search. Good Luck! For a big challenge, seek for the slender waning crescent moon pairing up with Mercury before sunrise on January 25 and 26 . Binoculars may come in handy! Click here for recommended almanacs; they can give you Mercury’s rising time in your sky . What do we mean by bright planet? By bright planet, we mean any solar system planet that is easily visible without an optical aid and that has been watched by our ancestors since time immemorial. In their outward order from the sun, the five bright planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These planets actually do appear bright in our sky. They are typically as bright as – or brighter than – the brightest stars. Plus, these relatively nearby worlds tend to shine with a steadier light than the distant, twinkling stars. You can spot them, and come to know them as faithful friends, if you try. This image is from February 8, 2016.

It shows all 5 bright planets at once. Photo by our friend Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona. Bottom line: In January 2017, two of the five bright planets appear in the evening sky at dusk/nightfall: Venus and Mars. The other three planets – Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury – are found in the morning sky. Fall’s dazzling display of morning planets | Astronomy.com Fall’s dazzling display of morning planets Fall’s dazzling display of morning planets Venus appears at its brightest for the year September 21 and spends the next month in the company of Jupiter and Mars, culminating in a stunning trio at the end of October. The morning “star” gleams at its brightest of the year September 21, joined by Jupiter and Mars in the predawn eastern sky. Astronomy: Roen Kelly If you’re not already a morning person, this autumn is the time to at least attempt to become one. Start setting your alarm clock for about an hour and a half before sunrise, grab that cup of coffee, and head outside to the planetary parade on display in your eastern sky. Mid-September begins a two-month dazzling display of three bright planets before dawn.

Venus leads the way, rising before twilight commences and appearing far brighter than either Mars or Jupiter. Our sister planet reaches its greatest brilliancy of the year September 21, when it shines at magnitude –4.8 and appears on the border of the constellations Cancer and Leo. Mars lies to its lower left, glowing at magnitude 1.8 just a degree north of Leo’s luminary, 1st-magnitude Regulus. The Red Planet offers a lovely color contrast with the slightly brighter blue-white star. Meanwhile, Jupiter hugs the horizon 10° below Mars — the span of your closed fist held at arm’s length — but shines at a brighter magnitude –1.7. The gap between these two worlds tightens in late September. Mercury joins the planetary trio in October’s morning sky for the most gorgeous planetary lineup of 2015. A crescent Moon briefly joins the crowd, jumping from one planet to the next in four consecutive days. By October 1, Venus stands nearly 30° above the eastern horizon an hour before sunrise. A week later, on the 8th, a beautiful waning crescent Moon appears 4° above (west of) the planet.

Mars then hangs 9° below Venus, and Jupiter is 4° lower than it. Once twilight starts, look for Mercury just above the eastern horizon. Venus, Mars, and Jupiter create dramatic scenes throughout October. On the 28th, the three form a tight triangle. Astronomy: Kellie Jaeger Venus shines far brighter than the other planets in October. At magnitude –4.7, it beats Jupiter by three magnitudes and Mars by 6.5. Although Mercury is a bit brighter than the Red Planet, the surrounding twilight makes it somewhat harder to see. The Moon drops lower with each passing day, appearing 4° to the right of Mars on the 9th and 7° below Jupiter on the 10th. By October 11, the slim lunar crescent sits just 1° to Mercury’s lower right. Grab your binoculars for the best view of this fine pairing. Mercury reaches its peak at greatest elongation October 15, when it shines at magnitude –0.6. The best action is happening above, however, where the three other planets are inching closer.

Mars passes just 25' — less than the apparent diameter of a Full Moon — north of Jupiter on October 17, when a telescope will show them in a single field of view. But October’s finest planetary conjunction has to be on the 26th, when Venus passes 1.1° south of Jupiter. The event falls on the date of Venus’ greatest elongation, so both objects lie far from the Sun and stand high in a dark sky. Be sure to view the stunning pair with both naked eyes and binoculars. And don’t miss another nice grouping two days later, when Venus lies about 2.5° away from both Jupiter and Mars. Expand your knowledge with these tools from Astronomy magazine Bright planet Venus, like the moon, is just going through a phase - NBC News Nov 8 2013, 4:54 pm ET Bright planet Venus, like the moon, is just going through a phase by Joe Rao advertisement Skywatcher Victor Rogus snapped this view of the moon near Venus on Sept. 8 from Jadwin, Mo. The brilliant planet Venus is now a beautiful evening "star" in the late-fall twilight, shining brightly in the southwest through the purple dusk.

But did you know Venus has phases like the moon that are visible in telescopes? Weather permitting, Venus is the first planet night sky observers can spot, and it is even visible before sunset if you know just where to look in the southwest sky. The planet is gaining altitude in the twilight, boldly showing itself off after six months of hiding behind any inconvenient obstructions near the southwestern horizon. Venus is brightening too, since it is speeding toward Earth as it catches up to us in its faster, inner orbit around the sun. [ Weirdest Facts About Venus ] Phases of Venus revealed As Venus travels around the sun inside the Earth's orbit, it alternates regularly from evening to morning sky and back. It typically spends about 9 1/2 months as an "evening star" and about the same length of time as a "morning star." Some ancient astronomers actually thought they were seeing two different celestial bodies. They named the morning star after Phosphorus, the harbinger of light, and the evening star for Hesperus, the son of Atlas. It was the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras who first realized that Phosphorus and Hesperus was one and the same object.

To the ancients, such behavior was puzzling and was not really understood until the time of the famed 17th century astronomy Galileo Galilee . After moving to Pisa in the autumn of 1610, Galileo started observing Venus through his crude telescope. One evening he noticed that a small slice seemed to be missing from Venus' disk. After several more months, Venus appeared in the shape of a crescent — in other words, it seemed to display the same behavior as the phases of the moon . This was a major discovery, which ultimately helped to deliver a death blow to the long-held concept of an Earth-centered universe. On Wednesday, the moon passed just north of the planet Venus, making a pretty pair in the southwestern sky. Venus' path around the sun Venus wanders only a limited distance east or west of the sun, since, like Mercury, it is an "inferior" planet (orbiting the sun more closely than Earth does). Watching its movement is akin to watching an auto race from the grandstand: All the action takes place in front of you and it’s necessary to turn only a limited amount either way to see it at all.

In contrast, for "superior" planets (those located in orbits beyond the Earth from the sun), viewers on Earth are like the pit crews inside the racetrack who must turn in all directions to follow the cars. When Venus is on the opposite side of the sun from the Earth, it appears full (or nearly so) and rather small because it is far away. But because Venus moves with a greater velocity around the sun than the Earth, it gradually gets closer and looms progressively larger in apparent size. The angle of sunlight striking it as seen from our Earthly vantage point also appears to change as well. Ultimately, as Venus prepares to pass between the Earth and the sun it appears as a thinning crescent. And since at this point in its orbit it is nearly six times closer to us compared to when it was on the opposite side of the sun, it appears much larger to us as well. Here then, is a schedule of how Venus’ appearance has — and will — change during the coming weeks and months: 2013 Nov.

1, Greatest eastern elongation: Venus passed that point in the sky where it attained its greatest angular distance (47º) from the sun last Friday and now sets about 2 1/2 hours after sundown. In our solar system geometry, Venus made a right angle with both the sun and Earth. In terms of apparent size, Venus now appears more than twice as large as it was at the end of July. Venus is now a bright “evening star” setting just after the Sunday It is at greatest eastern elongation on Nov. 1, looking like a miniature first quarter moon. In a small telescope , Venus now closely resembles a dazzling silvery-white "half-moon." In the nights that follow it gradually becomes a fat crescent while growing ever larger as it swings around in its orbit closer to Earth. 2013 Nov. 6: Venus and the crescent moon make for an eye-catching sight in the west-southwest sky right after sunset. Venus shonewell below and to the left of the slender sunlit sliver (13 percent illuminated) of the moon.

Observers could also see the full globe of the moon, its darkened portion glowing with a bluish-gray hue interposed between the sunlit crescent and not much darker sky. This vision is sometimes called "the old moon in the young moon's arms." Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first to recognize it as earthshine. That dim bluish-gray light is light from the Earth reflected back to the moon. The Earth's light of course is reflected sunlight, so earthshine is really sunlight which is reflected off Earth to the moon and reflected back to Earth. Another, similar pairing-off between the moon and Venus will take place on the evening of Dec. 5. 2013 Dec. 6, Greatest illuminated extent/greatest brilliancy: This is the "compromise phase" between the time that Venus appears full, but tiny and when it appears almost six times larger but is just a hairline crescent. The greatest amount of illuminated surface area combined with a moderately large angular size makes Venus now appear truly dazzling, shining 25 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star and setting nearly three hours after the sun.

Venus appears so bright now that it can be seen easily with the naked eye in a deep blue, haze-free afternoon sky. It continues to approach the Earth while appearing to curve back in toward the sun in our sky. In a telescope it is now a big, beautiful crescent that grows larger and thinner with each passing night. The crescent can now be glimpsed even in steadily held binoculars. Venus now stands 37 million miles from the Earth. Its disk appears 25 percent illuminated and about 35 percent larger in size than it did just one month ago. 2013 Dec. 21, Disk 12 percent illuminated: The crescent of Venus continues to narrow, but because it also continues to approach our Earth, it appears to greatly lengthen as well. It's now 29 million miles away, but is also in a rapid plunge down the sky toward the sun. It's now setting just over two hours after sunset. This is a good time to compare the appearance of Venus' two cusps. Can you make out the crescent's "cusp extensions" — the thread-like wisps of light extending beyond the crescent's points? 2013 Dec.

28, Disk only 6 percent illuminated: It is now critical to try and locate Venus as early as possible when it is still high in the sky in a steady atmosphere. Observing well before sunset is best. At sunset as seen from mid-northern latitudes, Venus stands about 15 degrees above the southwest horizon and sets about 100 minutes later. Note: Your fist at arm's length covers 10 degrees of sky. By this time, Venus is less than 27 million miles from the Earth and is becoming more and more aligned between our planet and the sun. As such, Venus is turning more and more of its dark side toward us. A week from now, it will be all but gone from the evening sky. 2014 Jan. 11, inferior conjunction: Venus will finally transition from an evening to morning star and will appear to pass between the Earth and the sun on this day. By the morning of Jan. 17 Venus is emerging as a new morning “star” rising in the east-southeast at mid-dawn. By this time, Venus can be found about 3 degrees above the horizon a half-hour before sunrise.

A line from the star Deneb, in Cygnus through the star Altair, in Aquila points right at it. After another week you should see it easily from anywhere with an open east-southeastern view 45 minutes to an hour before sunrise. Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo of Venus that you would like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com . Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 in Westchester, N.Y. Follow us @SPACEdotcom , Facebook or Google+ . Originally published on Space.com. Bright Planet Venus Has Phases Like the Moon Bright Planet Venus Has Phases Like the Moon By Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist | November 6, 2013 05:49pm ET MORE Venus is now a bright “evening star” setting just after the Sunday It is at greatest eastern elongation on Nov.

1, looking like a miniature first quarter moon. Credit: Starry Night Software The brilliant planet Venus is now a beautiful evening "star" in the late-fall twilight, shining brightly in the southwest through the purple dusk. But did you know Venus has phases like the moon that are visible in telescopes? Weather permitting, Venus is the first planet night sky observers can spot, and it is even visible before sunset if you know just where to look in the southwest sky. The planet is gaining altitude in the twilight, boldly showing itself off after six months of hiding behind any inconvenient obstructions near the southwestern horizon. Venus is brightening too, since it is speeding toward Earth as it catches up to us in its faster, inner orbit around the sun. [ Weirdest Facts About Venus ] Phases of Venus revealed As Venus travels around the sun inside the Earth's orbit, it alternates regularly from evening to morning sky and back. It typically spends about 9 1/2 months as an "evening star" and about the same length of time as a "morning star." Some ancient astronomers actually thought they were seeing two different celestial bodies.

They named the morning star after Phosphorus, the harbinger of light, and the evening star for Hesperus, the son of Atlas. It was the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras who first realized that Phosphorus and Hesperus was one and the same object. To the ancients, such behavior was puzzling and was not really understood until the time of the famed 17th century astronomy Galileo Galilee . After moving to Pisa in the autumn of 1610, Galileo started observing Venus through his crude telescope. One evening he noticed that a small slice seemed to be missing from Venus' disk. After several more months, Venus appeared in the shape of a crescent — in other words, it seemed to display the same behavior as the phases of the moon . This was a major discovery, which ultimately helped to deliver a deathblow to the long-held concept of an Earth-centered universe. Skywatcher Victor Rogus snapped this view of the moon near Venus on Sept. 8, 2013 from Jadwin, Missouri.

Credit: Victor Rogus Venus' path around the sun Venus wanders only a limited distance east or west of the sun, since, like Mercury, it is an "inferior" planet (orbiting the sun more closely than Earth does). Watching its movement is akin to watching an auto race from the grandstand: All the action takes place in front of you and it’s necessary to turn only a limited amount either way to see it at all. In contrast, for "superior" planets (those located in orbits beyond the Earth from the sun), viewers on Earth are like the pit crews inside the racetrack who must turn in all directions to follow the cars. When Venus is on the opposite side of the sun from the Earth, it appears full (or nearly so) and rather small because it is far away. But because Venus moves with a greater velocity around the sun than the Earth, it gradually gets closer and looms progressively larger in apparent size. The angle of sunlight striking it as seen from our Earthly vantage point also appears to change as well. Planet Venus is often likened to Earth but with a runaway greenhouse problem. The 2nd planet from the sun is hot shrouded with deadly clouds. Those are hints.

Now test your knowledge of Venus facts. Start Over | More Quizzes Ultimately, as Venus prepares to pass between the Earth and the sun it appears as a thinning crescent. And since at this point in its orbit it is nearly six times closer to us compared to when it was on the opposite side of the Sun, it appears much larger to us as well. Here then, is a schedule of how Venus’ appearance has — and will — change during the coming weeks and months: 2013 Nov. 1, Greatest Eastern Elongation: Venus passed that point in the sky where it attained its greatest angular distance (47º) from the Sun last Friday and now sets about 2 1/2 hours after sundown. In our solar system geometry, Venus made a right angle with both the sun and Earth. In terms of apparent size, Venus now appears more than twice as large as it was at the end of July. In a small telescope , Venus now closely resembles a dazzling silvery-white "half-moon." In the nights that follow it gradually becomes a fat crescent while growing ever larger as it swings around in its orbit closer to Earth. 2013 Nov.

6: Venus and the crescent Moon will make for an eye-catching sight in the west-southwest sky right after sunset. Venus will shine well below and to the left of the slender sunlit sliver (13-percent illuminated) of the moon. Observers should also be able to see the full globe of the moon, its darkened portion glowing with a bluish-gray hue interposed between the sunlit crescent and not much darker sky. This vision is sometimes called "the old moon in the young moon's arms." Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first to recognize it as earthshine. That dim bluish-gray light is light from the Earth reflected back to the moon. The Earth's light of course is reflected sunlight, so earthshine is really sunlight which is reflected off Earth to the moon and reflected back to Earth. Another, similar pairing-off between the Moon and Venus will take place on the evening of Dec. 5. 2013 Dec. 6, Greatest Illuminated Extent/Greatest Brilliancy: This is the "compromise phase" between the time that Venus appears full, but tiny and when it appears almost six times larger but is just a hairline crescent.

The greatest amount of illuminated surface area combined with a moderately large angular size makes Venus now appear truly dazzling, shining 25 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star and setting nearly three hours after the sun. Venus appears so bright now that it can be seen easily with the naked eye in a deep blue, haze-free afternoon sky. It continues to approach the Earth while appearing to curve back in toward the Sun in our sky. In a telescope it is now a big, beautiful crescent that grows larger and thinner with each passing night. The crescent can now be glimpsed even in steadily held binoculars. Venus now stands 37 million miles from the Earth. Its disk appears 25-percent illuminated and about 35 percent larger in size than it did just one month ago. Wednesday November 6, the Moon passes just north of the planet Venus, making a pretty pair in the southwestern sky. Credit: Starry Night Software 2013 Dec. 21, Disk 12-percent illuminated: The crescent of Venus continues to narrow, but because it also continues to approach our Earth, it appears to greatly lengthen as well.

It's now 29 million miles away, but is also now in a rapid plunge down the sky toward the sun. It's now setting just over two hours after sunset. This is a good time to compare the appearance of Venus' two cusps. Can you make out the crescent's "cusp extensions" — the thread-like wisps of light extending beyond the crescent's points? 2013 Dec. 28, Disk only 6-percent illuminated: It is now critical to try and locate Venus as early as possible when it is still high in the sky in a steady atmosphere. Observing well before sunset is best. At sunset as seen from mid-northern latitudes, Venus stands about 15 degrees above the southwest horizon and sets about 100 minutes later. Note: Your fist at arm's length covers 10 degrees of sky. By this time, Venus is less than 27 million miles from the Earth and is becoming more and more aligned between our planet and the sun. As such, Venus is turning more and more of its dark side toward us. A week from now, it will be all but gone from the evening sky. 2014 Jan.

11, Inferior Conjunction: Venus will finally transition from an evening to morning star and will appear to pass between the Earth and the sun on this day. By the morning of Jan. 17 Venus is emerging as a new morning “star” rising in the east-southeast at mid-dawn. By this time, Venus can be found about 3 degrees above the horizon a half-hour before sunrise. A line from the star Deneb, in Cygnus through the star Altair, in Aquila points right at it. After another week you should see it easily from anywhere with an open east-southeastern view 45 minutes to an hour before sunrise. Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo of Venus that you would like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com . Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us @SPACEdotcom , Facebook or Google+ .

Originally published on SPACE.com . Moon, Venus & Jupiter Visible Together in Sunday Sky Crescent Moon Joins Venus & Jupiter in Pre-Dawn Sky Sunday By Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist | July 14, 2012 07:00am ET MORE This image shows the bright planets Venus and Jupiter meeting the crescent moon on July 15, 2012. Credit: NASA Venus, Jupiter and the moon will gather together in the early morning sky Sunday (July 15), and provided the weather conditions cooperate, the celestial show will be well worth getting out of bed. Should weather conditions be favorable, set your alarm clock for around 4:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, and then proceed to a location where you will have a clear and unobstructed view of the east-northeast sky. Rather than partake in the usual "inside-the-eyelid show" at that somewhat ungodly hour, you can instead be rewarded with a view of a beautiful celestial gathering, as the slender crescent moon, just 13-percent illuminated, appears in close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky .

Early risers who are up an hour or two before sunrise, and who are unaware or have no advance notice, will almost certainly wonder, as they cast a casual glance toward the skinny moon that morning, what those two "large silvery stars" happen to be. Sometimes, such an occasion brings with it a sudden spike of phone calls to local planetariums, weather offices and even police precincts. Not a few of these calls excitedly inquire about "the UFOs" that are hovering close to our natural satellite. If bad weather or clouds spoil your view, you can also watch the planetary sky show online via live telescope views from the Slooh Space Camera website. All together again This cosmic scene between the two brightest planets and a crescent moon will be somewhat reminiscent of a similar three-way gathering that took place in the evening sky on the last weekend of February. The brightest of the dynamic planetary duo that will keep company with the moon Sunday morning will be dazzling Venus, which has adorned the east-northeast twilight sky since it emerged into view following its rare transit of the sun in early June. [ Bright Planets in Summer Sky Explained (Infographic) ] No other star or planet in the night sky can come close to matching Venus in brilliance.

Right now Venus is shining at its peak brilliance for its anticipated morning meet-up, and is more than 17 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. This summer, Venus is the unrivaled morning star, and will soar from excellent to magnificent prominence in the east-northeast sky at dawn. The planet will be visible 2.5 hours before the sun rises on July 15, with that period growing to 3.5 hours by August 15. In fact, if the air is very clear and the sky is a good, deep blue, try looking for Venus shortly after sunrise. Once you know where to look, you should be able to see it in the daytime long after the sun has come up, appearing as a tiny white "speck" against the blue sky. Meanwhile, Jupiter , dazzling in its own right, though just 1/9th as bright as Venus, is also becoming increasingly prominent in the morning sky, rising about 3.5 minutes earlier and climbing progressively higher each morning. On July 15 at sunrise, Jupiter will stand 35-degrees above the horizon.

As a benchmark, 10 degrees can be visualized as roughly the equivalent of your clenched fist held at arm's length. By August 31, Jupiter will be twice as high, soaring more than three-quarters of the way up from the horizon to the point directly overhead. [ Video: Planet Jewels of the Summer Night Sky ] An Earthlit ball Also on Sunday evening, you may be able to see the full globe of the moon, its darkened portion glowing with a bluish-gray hue interposed between the sunlit crescent and only a bit of darker sky. This vision is sometimes called "the new moon in the old moon’s arms." Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first to recognize it as what we now call "Earthshine." The effect is caused by sunlight bouncing off the clouds and ocean waters of our planet that is reflected up toward the part of the moon not illuminated by sunlight. But that's not all. As a bonus, this arrangement of the moon together with Venus and Jupiter will be positioned below the famous Pleiades star cluster, and will also be set against a fine V-shaped cluster of stars known as the Hyades.

Note the bright orange star at the end of the lower arm of the V, which represents the angry, fiery eye of the constellation of Taurus , the Bull. This colorful star is Aldebaran, "the Follower;" for it rises soon after the Pleiades and seems to pursue them across the sky. This skymap shows the position of Venus and Jupiter, in relation to the bright star Aldebaran and the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters, in the eastern sky on July 15, 2012. Credit: NASA Keeping it all in perspective Keep in mind that this head-turning display will be merely an illusion of perspective : on Sunday, the moon will be only about 249,000 miles (401,000 kilometers) from Earth, while Venus is 175 times farther away, at 43.6 million miles (149.67 million km). Meanwhile, Jupiter is almost 2,115 times farther away than the moon, at 526.7 million miles (847.4 million km).

Meanwhile, the Hyades — the nearest example of an open star cluster relative to our solar system — is located about 150 light-years away. Aldebaran, which from our vantage point appears to be a part of the Hyades, really isn’t. The star just happens to be an innocent bystander, merely located by chance in the line of sight between us and the Hyades star cluster. Aldebaran is, in fact, 65 light-years away, which is less than half the distance of the Hyades cluster. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Planet Viewing | StarDate Online Planet Viewing Mercury ☿The Sun’s closest planet is at its best this year in the dawn sky in mid- September, and in the evening sky in early April. Venus ♀The brilliant morning or evening star starts 2017 in the evening sky, where it remains through mid-March.

It then disappears in the Sun’s glare, but returns to view in the morning sky by late March or early April. Mars ♂The Red Planet shines brightest this year in January, when it’s in the evening sky. It disappears in the Sun’s glare in early June, then climbs into the morning sky in September. Jupiter ♃The largest planet in the solar system, and the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus, shines at its best in early April, when it is brightest and is in the sky all night. Saturn ♄The ringed planet shines brightest this year in June, as it moves through Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer. Uranus ♅The seventh planet is at its brightest in October, in Pisces, when it barely reaches naked-eye visibility. You need very dark skies and good eyes to spot it. Neptune Observing Planets Observing Planets 0 by John Shibley and Deborah Byrd Planets have been in the news lately. They appear to orbit nearby stars and—here in our own solar system—they’ve been known to gobble up hapless spacecraft. But here’s a newsbreak.

You don’t need fancy telescopes or spacecraft to glimpse a planet or two tonight! All you need is a current sky map and a good place from which to view. Chances are you’ve seen one of the planets in our solar system without even realizing it. Bright planets look like bright stars, except where stars twinkle, planets generally shine with a steady light. What’s more, planets are often brighter than any star. Five planets routinely outshine the brightest stars in our sky: these planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. All five have been known since ancient times. Because they shine so steady and brightly and appear to move independently of everything else in the heavens, these planets were assigned the names of gods by many ancient cultures. The names of planets in use today are drawn from Greek and Roman legends. The planets orbit at different distances from the sun, and they come in a variety of sizes. What’s more, some planets reflect more sunlight than others. For all of these reasons, each planet is unique among sky objects. If you take the time to learn to identify the bright planets and watch them with some regularity for perhaps a year, they will come to seem as individual as your closest friends.

Mercury By far the most elusive bright planet is Mercury. It’s the closest planet to the sun in our solar system—a rocky, airless world barely larger than our moon. As it swings around the sun in just 88 days, Mercury alternately goes from being an evening “star” to morning “star” visible in Earth’s sky. In either location, this planet is never found more than 28 degrees from the sun. It moves quickly! You have to look in just the right part of the sky, at an appropriate time, to see Mercury. You will always locate Mercury above a flat, unobstructed horizon within an hour or so before sunrise or after sunset, depending on where the planet is in its orbit. This planet has three evening appearances and three morning appearances each year, but not all of these are favorable for viewing. The best time of year to locate Mercury in the evening is springtime, when the angle of the ecliptic—or path of the sun, moon and planets—is inclined almost perpendicularly to the horizon. When days are lengthening and the world at your feet seems born anew, you will often find Mercury shining gaily in the western sky, above the place where the sun set.

Meanwhile, the best predawn appearances of Mercury always come in the autumn. Some people think that Mercury is the faintest planet, but that’s not so. To the eye, this innermost world looks like a bright star. Within a few days of passing between Earth and the sun, Mercury does something fascinating for telescope users. It takes on the appearance of a tiny crescent through any telescope working at modest magnification. Venus The next world out from Mercury, and the next one in towards the sun from Earth, is Venus. Once you see her, there’s no mistaking Venus for anything else. This planet is the third most brilliant object in the sky, after the sun and moon. It’s so bright that you can sometimes see it in a blue daytime sky. Venus appears bright partly because it’s nearby—and also because it is wrapped in white clouds that reflect more than 65 percent of the sunlight striking them (for comparison, the moon reflects about 12 percent of incoming sunlight). Like Mercury, Venus swings between morning and evening skies visible from Earth. Its location in our sky depends on where it is in its 244-day orbit around the sun.

But because Venus orbits farther from the sun than Mercury, opportunities to see it stretch out for months rather than, as is Mercury’s case, days at a time. Venus can appear farther from the sun in our sky than Mercury, 48 degrees in contrast to Mercury’s 28 degrees. Venus appears in the evening sky about six weeks after it has passed most directly behind the sun as seen from Earth. It starts low in the sky, but, evening by evening, grows brighter as it climbs higher in the west after sunset. At its highest above the sunset point, Venus is about halfway between the horizon and overhead. It is a lovely, conspicuous evening “star” that sets more than three hours after the sun. After reaching its greatest height in the sky, the sun seems to reel Venus in, and the planet appears lower each day in the evening twilight sky. Because it is really coming near to us, during this time Venus is getting brighter. There is always a day of “greatest brilliancy” near the end of each evening apparition. Then reports of UFOs always increase as Venus looms eerily bright, low in the evening sky!

Around this time, the view through a telescope reveals a waning crescent phase for Venus. All too soon, Venus disappears into the sun’s glare as it passes between the Earth and sun—only to become visible again a week or two later as a brilliant light low in the eastern, predawn sky. There is another time of greatest brilliancy and then, as in the evening, Venus climbs away from the sun’s glare before dawn. About eight weeks after its reappearance before dawn, Venus reaches its greatest height in the eastern sky, at which time the planet rises more than three hours before the sun. Then Venus begins to sink toward the sun’s glare again, slowly, as the planet flees far ahead of Earth in orbit. After more than nine months as a morning “star,” Venus once again disappears from view for earthly stargazers, this time because the planet is so far ahead of us in orbit that the sun comes between us and it. There is a period of several months in which we cannot see Venus. Then one fair evening you will spot her low in the west again—surprisingly bright for being so low in the sky!

Mars The next planet out from Earth’s orbit is Mars, which looks to the eye like a reddish “star.” Many cultures associated this planet’s red appearance to the unaided eye with war’s fixtures of blood and fire. In reality, Mars glows red because of oxidized soils that reflect the red portion of sunlight. Today we look to Mars as a possible abode for life because conditions on its surface most closely match our own planet’s, relative to other worlds in our solar system. This fascinating world holds a lot of interest for the naked-eye stargazer. Mars’ orbit around the sun takes only two years, in contrast to our single year. Thus Mars follows about a two-year cycle of observability in our sky. The cycle begins when we first glimpse Mars on the opposite side of the solar system, perhaps 19 light-minutes away. At this time, Mars appears in our predawn sky—low in the east, near the sun’s glare—very faint and remote. Bright stars in their constellations rise earlier from one day to the next, and thus the stars sweep up in the east behind Mars. But Mars itself is destined to loom near the early morning twilight for many months.

During this time, Earth’s faster motion in orbit—and smaller orbit around the sun—cause the distance between us and Mars to decrease. Thus Mars slowly gets brighter. Then there always comes a time when we suddenly seem hot on the heels of Mars in the race of the planets around the sun. Suddenly Mars is rising noticeably earlier each day. Before you know it, the planet can be seen rising at midnight, then at 10 p.m. All the while, Mars is getting much brighter—and brighter still. Soon it’s as bright as the sky’s brightest stars. Then amateur astronomers begin talking about Mars because we’re near another martian “opposition,” the best time to observe Mars with a telescope. Opposition for Mars occurs about every two years, when Mars appears opposite the sun as seen from Earth. Now the planet rises in the east when the sun sets in the west and arcs across the sky—a brilliant reddish light—all night long. This happens, of course, around the time we on Earth are flying between Mars and the sun. The distance of Mars at opposition varies over about a 15-year cycle, but at its closest Mars can be extremely close, only about three light-minutes away.

At such times, lots of people are talking about Mars! At these very close oppositions, the planet appears brighter than the brightest stars and shines as red as flame. The last exceptionally close opposition of Mars was in 1988, and the next one will be in 2003. Between now and then there will be a perfectly enjoyable martian opposition in 2001. Like Earth, Mars has seasons, polar ice caps, and a measurable atmosphere. Many of its geological features suggest a warmer and wetter past. No clue of Mars’ fascinating surface features can be glimpsed with the eye alone, but you can get a feel for the surface of Mars by looking at this planet through a telescope. Rough, rocky terrain looks like dark markings that stand out against lighter desert regions. Seasons spawn dust storms while polar caps swell and shrink. Mists and clouds burn off around huge volcanoes after martian sunrise, only to reform as evening approaches. Jupiter The next planet out from Mars is Jupiter. After the sun, this is the largest object in our solar system. Jupiter is a mammoth world greater in volume (and more than double in mass) than all the other planets combined.

Because Jupiter is some five times Earth’s distance from the sun, it orbits the sun much more slowly than we do. It has a much greater distance to cover, and its speed in orbit is less, about 8 miles per second in contrast to Earth’s orbital speed of 18 miles per second. Thus Jupiter takes 12 years to orbit the sun once, and it is Earth’s yearly orbit around the sun that dominates our view of this planet in the night sky. We see Jupiter for much of every year. We do not see it only when the sun is between us and it. The planet emerges from the sun’s glare in the east before dawn—much as Mars does—but because Jupiter moves more slowly with respect to the stars, it follows the stars’ motion up and away from the dawn. It shifts into the midnight sky, and then the late evening sky, and then—like Mars—comes to opposition when it is rising in the east as the sun sets in the west, as we fly between Jupiter and the sun. But the opposition of Jupiter is yearly instead of every two years.

What’s more, although Jupiter is indeed brighter at opposition, this planet is always so amazingly bright that the contrast in various parts of its orbit is not so great as that of Mars. Whenever it’s visible, Jupiter is a bold starlike object in our sky, brighter than any star—but not so bright as Venus! It’s fun to watch Jupiter’s progress around the sun over the course of some years. Because this planet takes 12 years to orbit the sun, and because there are 12 constellations of the Zodiac, Jupiter is in a different zodiacal constellation every year. Thus this giant planet is like a literal giant, stepping around the sky—one Zodiac constellation after another—year by year. A steadily held pair of 7×50 binoculars will reveal four bright moons whose positions around Jupiter change from night to night. Each of these moons, dubbed Galilean Satellites because Galileo first saw them in 1610, is larger than our moon. One, Ganymede, is even bigger than Mercury. All told, Jupiter has 16 known moons at the present time. Saturn The last planet in our solar system known since antiquity—the last one visible to the eye alone—lies beyond Jupiter.

Saturn is probably the solar system’s most showcased object for telescopic observers. To the unaided eye and through binoculars, however, it looks nothing more than a bright, butterscotch-hued star. No one would use a word like “brilliant” or “bold” to describe Saturn, even though the planet is brighter than most stars. Saturn is the faintest of the bright planets, and it moves most slowly of these planets among the stars, taking 30 years to orbit the sun once and thus 30 years to complete a single circuit around our sky. That is why some early stargazers called Saturn a name that means “oldest of the old sheep.” Saturn follows, more or less, the same pattern as Jupiter from one year to the next. We see it in the eastern, predawn sky—then at midnight—then in late evening—then rising in the east at sunset as the planet comes to its yearly opposition. Like Jupiter, Saturn is brightest to the eye at opposition, but the contrast in its brightness from one part of the year to the next is not great.

Indeed, this world’s appeal lies not in its changeability and not in any dramatic movement of Saturn in front of the stars. The appeal of Saturn is in the gentle quality of its bright golden light, and in the fact that this planet returns reliably, year after year, to nearly the same part of the sky. If you begin watching Saturn in the evening in autumn one year, as the world at your feet is becoming golden and dry, and cold winds are beginning to blow, you can be sure that Saturn will grace your evening sky at nearly that same season the following year. It does shift with respect to the stars, as all the planets do, but it does so with an impressive slowness. The view through a telescope at Saturn is nothing short of spectacular. Even a small telescope will reveal the planet’s ring system composed of rock and ice particles that never formed a moon. A telescope may also reveal reddish Titan, a smog-enshrouded moon that takes almost 16 days to complete a circuit of its home planet. Other Planets Our solar system’s three remaining planets were discovered relatively recently.

Uranus, which at its brightest is barely visible as a greenish “star,” was discovered during a telescopic search in 1781. This planet takes 84 years—about the length of a human lifespan—to orbit the sun once. Backyard observers routinely spot Uranus through a pair of binoculars, provided they have a current finder chart. Computational mathematics pulled Neptune in from the cold in 1846. This planet is a thousand million miles farther from the sun than Uranus. It requires 165 years to orbit the sun once. Neptune usually looks like a nondescript star through the eyepiece of a small telescope. Some people say its color is bluish. The challenge is spotting it among background stars, which is where a good finder map is necessary. Faint Pluto was found in 1930 after an exhaustive photographic search. This planet orbits the sun once every 248 years. Only observers armed with telescopes that have mirrors at least ten inches in diameter go for this faint target under dark skies. Backyard observers track down elusive outer planets with the same care and fervor as naturalists who scour a tropical rain forest for rare and wonderful animals.

Many conduct expansive searches for other denizens of the solar system, such as brighter asteroids and comets. Some have even taken a cue from birdwatchers and started solar system life lists. If you feel inspired to follow the same lead, here’s a suggestion to get you started: Terra Firma, or Earth! Luigiadmin The Solar System: Venus | The Institute for Creation Research The Solar System: Venus Resources › Physical Sciences Resources › Astronomy For millennia, people have enjoyed the sight of the “evening star” shining brightly in the western sky shortly after sunset. Outshining all other stars, this remarkable beacon seems to brighten to unbelievable glory as twilight fades to night. It rises higher night after night and then stops and begins to sink lower each evening until it vanishes below the horizon. Sometime later, it reappears just before sunrise in the eastern sky as the bright “morning star.” What did the ancient astronomers think about this magnificent object and its peculiar celestial dance? They called it “Venus,” after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.1 Physical Properties With modern technology, we have learned a great deal about Venus.

It’s not a “star” at all, but a planet—a small rocky world that shines only by reflected sunlight.2 In fact, Venus is about the same size as Earth.3 So when we look at Venus, it’s fun to think that this is also how tiny Earth would appear if viewed from Venus. The composition of Venus is also similar to Earth, and its orbit is physically closest to Earth’s of all the planets. For these reasons Venus is sometimes referred to as “Earth’s sister” or “Earth’s twin.”4 But there are far more differences than similarities. An examination of the surface of Venus has proved quite challenging because Venus is permanently enshrouded in thick clouds of sulfuric acid and toxic sulfur dioxide, masking all surface features. The atmosphere is comprised mainly of carbon dioxide and is the thickest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets. At the surface, Venus has a crushing air pressure that is 92 times greater than Earth’s! This thick atmosphere acts like a blanket, trapping solar energy and warming the planet to unbelievable temperatures. And since Venus orbits 26 million miles closer to the sun than Earth does, Venus already endures nearly twice the solar energy.

The greenhouse effect causes the surface temperature of Venus to approach 900°F—the hottest of any planet in our solar system. In 1990, the NASA spacecraft Magellan was inserted into orbit around Venus and began systematically mapping the surface using radar. Since radar is not blocked by clouds, Magellan was able to map the topography of Venus in unprecedented detail. The four-year-long mission revealed that Venus has many of the same geological features found on Earth, including mountains, valleys, canyons, volcanos, lava flows, craters, and plains. Venus also has two major “continents”—Ishtar Terra and Aphrodite Terra. But since there is no liquid water on Venus, these “continents” are recognized only by their high elevations. Venus also has geological features not found on Earth, such as arachnoids, novae, tesserae, coronae, and pancake domes. Arachnoids are regions where the terrain has been folded and broken into a gossamer-looking structure resembling a spider web. Novae are “radially fractured centers” between 60 and 200 miles in diameter.

Sixty-four novae have been discovered on Venus.5 Tesserae are complex ridged terrains found on plateaus. “Corona” is from the Latin meaning “crown.”6 They are oval-shape features thought to be produced by plumes of upwelling magma that cause the surface to bulge and then collapse in the center, forming a crown-like ring. Pancake domes are similar in most respects to shield volcanoes on Earth, such as Mauna Loa in Hawaii. However, pancake domes are flatter and broader than their terrestrial counterparts. Venus has no moons and virtually no magnetic field. Such similarity, yet with differences, is consistent with the nature of God. God is the source of creativity and has created a diversity of objects within the universe, and yet there are similarities since the entire universe was created and is upheld by the same God. Differences and similarities are seen in the biological world, the world of particle physics, and in the solar system as well. But in the secular view, how can we make sense of this? Earth and Venus are nearly identical in size and bulk composition and have similar orbits. In the secular view, they have a similar history too.

So why would Earth’s “sister” be so radically different from Earth? There are secular speculations for such things—but such diversity is expected in the Christian worldview. A Day on Venus Venus has the most circular orbit of any planet in the solar system. Its axial tilt is only three degrees, so there are no seasons on Venus. Since it orbits closer to the sun than Earth does, Venus orbits faster and completes a circuit every 7.4 months. But its day is much longer than Earth’s. Venus rotates once every eight months, so its day is actually longer than its year. This is the sidereal day—the rotation of Venus relative to the stars.7 What is even more intriguing is that Venus rotates backward. All eight planets orbit the sun counterclockwise, as viewed from the solar system’s North Pole. Most of the planets also rotate counterclockwise,8 but Venus is the exception.9 On Venus, the sun would rise in the west and set in the east—although it would be difficult to see the sun in such overcast skies. Secularists do not have a good explanation for the backward rotation of Venus.

In the secular scenario, the solar system is supposed to have formed from the collapse of a rotating nebula. The natural expectation of this would be that all planets would rotate in the same direction at about the same rate, and they would all have very little axial tilt. Venus is the worst offender to this concept, since it rotates exactly the opposite of what the evolutionary models require. But we expect such diversity in the biblical view. The backward rotation of Venus causes its solar day to be much shorter than its sidereal day—a unique phenomenon in the solar system. Recall that the solar day is the average time from one sunrise to the next as viewed from a planet’s surface (e.g., 24 hours for Earth). This is different (and normally slightly longer) from the sidereal day because planets orbit the sun and not the stars. Since Venus rotates in the opposite direction, its solar day is reduced to 3.8 months. Strangely, this is shorter than Mercury’s solar day, even though Venus physically rotates slower than Mercury. Phases and the Nature of the Solar System Venus is a great target for telescope beginners.

Its brightness makes it easy to find, and its size and proximity to Earth allow viewers to discern its shape through even a small, inexpensive telescope. Although the clouds on Venus prevent observations of any surface features, observers will immediately notice that Venus has phases; it is not uniformly illuminated, but appears bright on one side and dark on the other. Viewers sometime describe it as a tiny craterless “moon,” since the moon is the only other object that we readily recognize as going through phases. Just like the moon, Venus goes through new, crescent, quarter, gibbous, and full phases.10 And like the moon, these phases make it obvious to the eye that Venus is spherical, not a flat disk. But there are three differences in the phases of Venus compared to the moon. First, the moon takes roughly one month to go through its phases, whereas Venus takes over 19 months. Since Venus orbits the sun faster than Earth does, it physically overtakes and passes the Earth every 19 months. This is called the synodic period of Venus. Since the phase of Venus as seen from Earth depends on the relative positions of Earth, Venus, and the sun, phases correlate with the synodic period.

Second, whereas the moon remains approximately the same apparent size as it goes through its phases, Venus does not. Venus appears very small when in its gibbous phase (nearly full) and appears very large when in its crescent phase.11 This is because Venus orbits the sun, not the Earth. Hence, when Venus is nearly in-between the sun and Earth and we are viewing only a thin sliver of the illuminated side, Venus is nearly as close to Earth as it gets. Conversely, when Venus is on the far side of the sun, we see it nearly fully illuminated. Galileo was the first person to observe and document this effect. His telescopic observations of Venus led him to realize that planets orbit the sun—not the earth. This was in contrast to the prevailing scientific view of the day. The earth-centered (geocentric) solar system predicts that Venus will only appear as a crescent. The sun-centered (heliocentric) model can make sense of the phases of Venus and their correlation with its apparent size. Finally, the phases of Venus (and Mercury) are reversed relative to the moon.

In other words, when the moon is illuminated on the right side (toward the western horizon), it is in a waxing phase and will appear more illuminated on the following night. But when Venus is illuminated on the right side, it is in a waning phase and will appear less illuminated over the following weeks. Both Venus and the moon orbit in the same direction. So how can this be? The difference is because Venus orbits the sun, whereas the moon orbits Earth. So when the moon is in-between Earth and the sun, it is moving to the left (eastward). But when Venus is in between the sun and Earth, it is moving to the right (westward). From our perspective on Earth, Venus stands out as a pure white light, superior in splendor and luminance. Venus is mentioned in Scripture as the “morning star,” where its brilliance is used as a symbol for Christ ( Revelation 2:28 ; 22:16).12 None of the other nighttime stars can compete with Venus, so it is a fitting symbol of the beauty and glory of our Lord. References Venus is the second-brightest regular object in our night sky. Only the moon is brighter.

Venus is not a star in the modern sense of the word. However, the ancient term for star (aster in Greek, kowkab in Hebrew) includes both stars and planets. A planet is a “wandering star”—a star that moves relative to the majority of fixed stars. Venus is 95 percent as large as Earth in diameter. Though they do have the same Father ( James 1:17 ), they cannot be “twins” because Earth is three days older than Venus ( Genesis 1:1 , 14-19). Krassilnikov, A. S. and J. W. Head. 2003. Novae on Venus: Geology, Classification, and Evolution. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (1991-2012). 108 (E9): 1-48. Coronae are found only on Venus and Uranus’ moon Miranda. See the Mercury article for a discussion of sidereal versus solar days: Lisle, J. 2013. The Solar System: Mercury . Acts & Facts. 42 (8) 10-12.

This is relative to the North Pole of the solar system. Alternatively, we could define the North Pole of a planet as the pole under which the planet rotates counterclockwise. By this definition, all planets rotate in the same direction and Venus is merely “upside down.” There is no physical difference between Venus being tilted 3° and rotating backward (clockwise), as opposed to Venus being tilted 177° and rotating forward (counterclockwise). Both conventions are used in astronomy. Since the planet Uranus is tilted 97°, it too could be considered a backward-rotator with a tilt of 83°. However, since this is nearly a right angle, it makes little difference. The outer planets can only be seen in gibbous and full phases. This is because quarter and crescent phases require the planet to be closer to the sun than the observer is. This can never occur for an outer planet as seen from Earth. This effect is also visible in the planet Mercury for the same reason. However, the effect is much less noticeable on Mercury since its distance from Earth does not vary as much.

Also, Mercury is much smaller than Venus and closer in angle to the sun, making observations of its apparent diameter far more difficult. In some English translations, Lucifer is called the morning star in Isaiah 14:12 . It may bother some people that the same symbol is used for Christ, but Isaiah 14:12 may simply indicate that Lucifer was one of the most glorious angels before he rebelled. Satan attempts to parrot Christ in some ways—Christ is the Lion of Judah ( Revelation 5:5 ), and Satan prowls about as a roaring lion ( 1 Peter 5:8 ). We note that the word “star” does not appear in the Hebrew text of Isaiah 14:12 . “Son of the morning” or “son of the dawn” appears to be a more literal translation from the original text. * Dr. Lisle is Director of Physical Sciences at the Institute for Creation Research and received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado. Cite this article: Lisle, J. 2013. The Solar System: Venus. Acts & Facts. 42 (9): 10-12.

Question: Which planet in our solar system is known is ‘The Morning Star’ when it appears in the eastern sky before sunrise?
Answer: Venus